Medical Billing Companies & Consultants in Glendale, AZ

Medical Ancillary Services, often referred to as MAS, is a family-run billing company based in Glendale, Arizona, that limits its work to behavioral health. Rather than taking on claims for every type of medical practice, the firm concentrates on mental health and substance abuse (MHSA) billing. That makes it a narrow but focused choice for West Valley practices, including those in Peoria, that want a biller familiar with the particular demands of behavioral health payers.

Who They Serve

The company works with both solo clinicians and group practices. Its clients include psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurse practitioners and therapists. The site also highlights telehealth billing as a specialty and reaches out to clinicians contracted with Tricare and the VA through TriWest, offering support with claims for providers who treat veterans. Tracking employee assistance program (EAP) authorizations and visit limits is another pain point the firm addresses.

Services

MAS shapes each engagement around the individual provider. Before onboarding, the team asks prospective clients to describe what they need, what works in their current billing setup and what frustrates them, then builds a service plan from those answers. Core offerings include:

• Verification of insurance eligibility and benefits, including confirming the correct carrier, network status and payer ID, with re-checks encouraged each January
• Electronic claim filing, with paper and secondary claims sent when required
• Follow-up on claims that go unpaid or are denied
• Research and preparation of written appeals when a carrier refuses payment without good cause
• Posting of payments received from carriers and from patients
• Monthly patient statements, with balances reviewed for accuracy before mailing
• Authorization tracking
• Monthly reporting on practice performance

Technology and Process

Clients get access to Kareo, a full practice management platform, and claims are routed through TriZetto, the clearinghouse the firm prefers. Because the Kareo scheduler is shared between the practice and the billing team, MAS audits each provider profile at month end to confirm that every appointment has been billed, a step designed to prevent lost charges.

Practices can also store scanned insurance cards, face sheets and photo identification in their Kareo account under a monthly storage allowance, which lets office staff match patients to their ID and notice changes in coverage. Each month, clients receive four standard reports, and further standard or custom reports are available.

Background and Approach

Two generations of the same family run the business, and the company says clients regard its billers as part of their own staff. It stresses accuracy, consistency and prompt handling of denials, aiming to resolve problems during routine claim follow-up so that formal appeals, which can hold up payment for weeks, are seldom needed.

The firm cites a 95 percent claim collection rate. Fees are set individually from a customized client profile, and new clients begin on a graduated fee schedule during their first months. For behavioral health practices around Peoria and greater Phoenix seeking a small, specialty-focused billing partner located nearby, MAS offers a locally based option.

Phoenix Medical Billing operates out of Glendale, Arizona, serving independently owned healthcare practices with billing and a wide range of back-office functions. The business was started by Anita Tougas, who remains at its head.

Rather than acting merely as an outside claims processor, the company aims to be a single point of support covering the money side, the day-to-day operations and the administrative aspects of clinical work for private offices. Its leaders cite over twenty-five years of experience in healthcare.

According to the firm, it is one of several offices across the country that carry the Medical Revenue Management banner, a network centered on revenue cycle services and advisory work for privately run practices.

Who They Serve

Phoenix Medical Billing supports everyone from single-provider offices to larger, higher-volume clinics staffed by multiple clinicians. Past and current clients include medical doctors, chiropractors, social workers and a variety of other licensed professionals. Feedback from clients points to notable experience with mental health care; one enduring client relationship involves a hospital-affiliated psychiatric practice made up of fifteen physicians serving the local area. A portion of the firm's advice on electronic records is tailored to chiropractors and dentists.

Services

Practices may mix and match from these main services:

• End-to-end claims and billing assistance, working within the practice's current EMR or a newly adopted one
• Credentialing of providers and enrollment in insurance networks appropriate to their field
• Accounts receivable follow-up featuring prompt, automated outreach to patients with past-due amounts
• Determining what patients owe, then handling and collecting those payments
• Monitoring of HIPAA compliance, including HITECH risk reviews and Omnibus rule obligations
• Advice on choosing an electronic medical records system and support during implementation
• Electronic communication with patients, including appointment reminders, practice announcements and health tips
• Printed mailings to current patients, such as postcards, brochures and seasonal cards, which may be set up to recur over the course of the year
• Advisory services for practice expansion, covering referral development, marketing and keeping patients engaged

How They Work

A typical engagement opens with a complimentary review of the practice. This brief meeting, roughly a quarter of an hour, involves the clinician and principal staff members. It may take place on site, frequently paired with a lunch the company offers to provide, or remotely through Zoom or Google Meet.

Using a proprietary evaluation tool, the firm then delivers a written summary identifying opportunities in areas such as referral flow, expansion of insurance participation, suitability of the current EMR, billing performance and marketing. The company describes itself as software-neutral, selecting tools that match each practice and fitting them to existing office routines.

Because its offerings are modular, clients pay only for the components they actually want.

Background and Team

Anita Tougas, who founded the company and serves as CEO, brings more than two and a half decades of healthcare industry experience. Her earlier career in marketing management informs the growth and positioning guidance the company provides in addition to billing.

Testimonials featured by the firm refer to her by name, praising reasonable pricing, dependable work and partnerships that have continued for years, sometimes lasting until a doctor's retirement. Connor Tougas, vice president, is a newer addition whose expertise spans finance and technology.

His focus includes modernizing the company's internal systems, raising the level of client service and developing approaches that can grow with demand. For prospective clients, the firm's distinguishing traits are owner-driven personal attention, durable client partnerships and practice support extending far past claim submission.